mezze legend chef's specials home testing

Published 20th September 2026

Almost exactly a year after the last lot of home testing for Noodle Legend, we were sent home with another set of recipes to try for the newest member of the Legend family … Mezze Legend Chef’s Specials!

It's important that we test these recipes in a normal home kitchen as well as at Spicery HQ, to make sure they will work well for you at home.

Naturally, there were a few mishaps along the way but the first round of testing went pretty well...
Sale

Mezze Legend Chef's Specials Cookbook Kit

£36.95 £22.17

Mezze Legend Chef's Specials Cookbook Kit
£22.17 £36.95

Joan

Turkish Flatbread 8/10
The bread was delicious. It was soft and chewy on the inside, slightly crisp on the outside, and easy to make. I would definitely recommend this dish as a quick midweek dinner, it goes well with most main dishes!

Panir Sabzi 8/10
I combined this dish with Turkish flatbread and Tavuk shawarma. This combination was amazing. All dishes complemented each other, and even if you eat the panir sabzi alone, its freshness and aromatic flavour will leave you wanting more.
I added paneer, which I fried, but to be honest I think feta suits it better in terms of texture and flavour. The paneer was too bland and crunchy, and I barely noticed it because of the nuts. Probably best to stick to the recipe!

Yogurt Cheesecake with Honey & Orange 9/10
A delicious and very balanced flavour. The texture improves the longer you leave it in the fridge (I think it’s better to let it cool in the fridge before attempting to remove the tray!). Apart from that, it looks appetising and has a good aroma.

Tavuk Shawarma 8/10
The chicken was juicy, with the right amount of spices. The cooking method made it more interesting in texture, with all those uneven surfaces on the chicken. It looks really good, just looking at the charred areas makes you want to take a bite! I didn’t encounter any problems, except that I had to use an air fryer. I cooked it at 200°C for around 15–18 minutes. Next time I make this dish, I will roast some vegetables together with the meat to add more flavour but either way, it tastes really good. This would definitely work well for a special occasion or a simple mid-week meal!

Beef & Prune Tagine 7/10
The meat was tender and absorbed the spices well. I think it would taste even better with saffron, but I used turmeric instead. It takes a long time to cook, but with a pressure cooker I wouldn’t mind making it again. It would also help enhance the sauce, making it even richer in flavour. I think the fried almonds and sesame seeds add a nice contrast in texture to the dish. It even looks fancier! A great weekend family meal on a cold day!

Torsh Kebab 7/10
I really liked the tanginess from the pomegranate molasses and walnuts, and the golden-brown grilled meat with charred areas makes it look appetising. The result was delicious; however, I think I overcooked it, which made the chicken slightly dry! It’s easy to make if you have a big family and don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen.

Hummus with Lemon Dressing 8/10
I think the lemon dressing is a good addition; the lemon adds the acidity that makes the hummus more addictive. It looks like the hummus you would get from a good restaurant.

Bezirgani 8/10
I think this dish surprised me. It shines the most when eaten with flatbread. It’s more punchy than hummus and contains a combination of flavours that work well together. It’s like eating pizza! Perfect to share at the table with some flatbreads. I would definitely make it again.

Robyn

Yogurt Cheesecake with Honey & Orange 9/10
I used almonds instead of pistachios in the base and it worked really well. Everyone loved it and I felt really proud making it! The honey and orange syrup was a great addition.

Beyti kebab 9/10
This looked really impressive and the tomato sauce was delicious but I managed to overcook the kebab slightly. The feedback around the table was that it was “like a sausage roll, but in a good way”!

Masguf fish 9/10
This is a brilliantly quick and easy mid-week meal that is still really delicious and impressive. Cooked it in the oven on a high heat and it worked really well.

Taktouka 10/10
This dip was the hit of the night! It goes with everything and looks amazing being so vibrant and red.

Green beans with lemon & olive oil 8/10
This is a really lovely and simple side dish. The almonds turn the beans into a standard, boring vegetable to an exciting and delicious dish!

Warm hummus with crispy lamb 8/10
We all really enjoyed the hummus - I think I cooked the lamb for too long but the crispiness is lovely against the silky hummus. Definitely a great addition to any mezze spread!

Chelo rice 9/10
Flipped it out after the time stated but it didn’t turn out well and wasn’t cooked. We managed to flip it back into the pan and cook for another 5 minutes. When we turned it out again it was amazing! We loved it - buttery and crispy, it was delicious, a real show-stopper spread

Baked feta with hot honey 8/10
This is a great starter with a nice kick to the hot honey. Everybody around the table really enjoyed it!

Moroccan Style carrots 8/10
These carrots are sweet and fragrant but there is a lot of them!
(We reduced the quantity of carrots in this recipe after Robyn gave us her feedback!)

Georgia

Manti 7/10
When we test the recipes at home, we don’t get an accompanying photo so I found it a bit confusing when it came to sealing them but now I’ve seen the photo, it’s much clearer!
They tasted really good - the texture was a little bit slimy but overall it did taste good with the garlic yogurt and spiced butter. This is definitely a dinner party dish rather than a quick midweek meal!

Cigar Borek 8/10
Delicious! These went down really well. I spread the feta mix in a horizontal line rather than a dollop to make rolling them up easier. They looked really good, lovely and golden and crispy, A great dinner party dish as part of a selection of mezze dishes.

Turkish flatbread 9/10
They looked really good, it always looks impressive when you make your own bread!
Great for a dinner party or family-friendly meal, although not that quick as you have to leave the dough to rise, so not a quick midweek dinner

Chicken Shish Kebap 8/10
Really delicious, perfect flavour and spice level. Ate these in the Turkish flatbread with some of the eech salad and biber sauce. We found that we wanted some sort of garlicky yogurt to go with it, so took some of this off the manti dumplings. It was the perfect accompaniment, so some sort of garlic yogurt would make a good addition to the 'goes great with'!
Great dinner party dish, but would also make a good family-friendly meal as they are not too spicy. If you marinate the chicken in advance, they are really quick to cook.

Eech salad 8/10
This salad tastes great and looks really pretty with the lettuce leaves arranged around the side and the lemon wedges arranged in a pattern on the top. It did take a bit of time for the bulgur wheat to cool down but I think it was worth waiting as I don’t think it would have been as nice served warm. It’s a great dinner party dish as it looks very visually impressive when arranged nicely, but would also be family-friendly.

Pea, mint and pistachio dip 8/10
The vibrant green colour of the dish is really stunning, and looked great with a swirl of the dressing and some extra whole pistachios sprinkled over. If you were cooking a trio of dips, this one is perfect for providing some colour contrast.It looks great as a dinner party dish, be is also very family-friendly taste wise.

Hummus with lemon dressing 8/10
It tasted great, the dressing on top made it feel a lot more sophisticated and decadent than regular hummus. My guests were really impressed, as I think people don't realise how easy it is to make your own hummus from scratch! It looks really nice having the dressing in the hollow in the centre, although this is quite hard to do as the hummus is fairly loose (even after a while in the fridge) so the hollow kept collapsing in on itself. It took quite a long time to get this right but it was worth it!

Spicy Biber Sauce 8/10
Tasted great, perfect heat level to add a lovely kick to our chicken shish kebaps, without being really overpowering. A good addition to a dinner party mezze spread for those that want to add a bit of extra heat. Also made a good dip for the cigar borek!

Chocolate Pistachio Baklava 7/10
The main problem I had (and I've encountered this issue before when making baklava) is that cutting the slices before cooking leads to the corners of each little square of filo on the top layer curling up when cooking. Even though I pressed the filo down as well as I could before cooking, there still didn't seem to be enough weight to hold this top layer down and so it starts to curl up and go crispy at the edges. It might make a difference how many sheets of filo you use for each layer, especially for the top layer, maybe more sheets is better. Luckily, pouring the syrup over the baklava at the end softened the top layer of filo, so I could flatten down all of the edges that had curled up.
It tasted good, went well with a cup of tea after dinner. I didn't find myself wanting more than 2 small pieces though!
The syrup soaked through all of the layers really well, it was very saturated.

Jess

Jewelled Tahini & Orange Brownies 8/10
There were a couple of little issues with the recipe (which have been changed now, don’t worry!) so the first go wasn’t great. However, once these had been ironed out and I had another go they were absolutely fantastic! The dried fruit adds a lovely tang and the marbled tahini makes them feel more grown up and decadent. I really lovely treat with a cup of coffee.

Labneh with salted cucumber 7/10
This is a really lovely, simple mezze dish that works brilliantly with some of the more punchy dishes in the book. I didn’t find creating the cross shape that easy but I hope that the photo will be a useful guide for everyone!

Bezirgani 9/10
This is a really delicious dish. It is made from some excellent ingredients that taste amazing when blitzed together. We had it with some Turkish flatbreads and a few other dishes and it was definitely a favourite around the table. The kids loved it and were dipping their baharat fries into it to finish it off.

Baharat Fries 9/10
A really simple but effective way to jazz up some oven chips. I wouldn’t usually make chips as part of a mezze spread but the pomegranate seeds made them feel special and the spice mix was really delicious. There was a bit of the seasoning left over which I put on the table for people to sprinkle over other dishes which seemed to work well.

Turkish-Style Chickpea Salad 9/10
This is a brilliant dish that I’ve made endless times for lunches ever since testing it for the first time for this book. I used a jar of bruschetta topping (a mix of tomatoes and olives in oil) which worked perfectly and the herbs make it feel light and fresh.


All in all I would say that this round of home testing was a success! We made a few final tweaks off the back of this and Mezze Legend Chef's Specials is now available to buy. 

Happy spicing!

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